Archives for October 2015

Margaret Spellings, president of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas and former U.S. Secretary of Education, was elected president of the 17 campus University of North Carolina during a special meeting last Friday of the UNC Board of Governors.

Spellings will take office March 1, 2016, succeeding President Tom Ross.

Spellings has served as president of the George W. Bush Presidential Center since 2013. In that role, she oversees the operations of the former U.S. president’s foundation, public policy institute, and, in collaboration with the National Archives and Records Administration, his presidential library and museum.

Her work at the Bush Center includes the 2014 launch of the Presidential Leadership Scholars program.

She is a 1979 graduate of the University of Houston, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in political science.

Spellings served in key positions in the Bush Administration. As White House Domestic Policy Advisor, from 2001 to 2005, she led the development of the president’s domestic policy agenda. Her areas of responsibility included education, transportation, health, justice, housing and labor. In that role, she oversaw the development of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the development of a comprehensive immigration plan, and numerous other initiatives.

From 2005 to 2009, Spellings served as U.S. Secretary of Education, the nation’s senior policy official on all aspects of education — primary, secondary, and post-secondary.

During her tenure she led the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act, a national bipartisan initiative to provide greater accountability for the education of 50 million U.S. public school students.

She also launched a higher education national policy debate and action plan to improve the accessibility, affordability, and accountability of the nation’s colleges and universities.

From 2009 until joining the Bush Center in 2013, Spellings was president and CEO of Margaret Spellings and Company, a Washington, D.C., consulting firm that provided strategic guidance on a variety of domestic policy matters, particularly those related to education and workforce issues.

A U.S. Chamber of Commerce Fellow, Spellings currently serves on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Education Advisory Board, the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Advisory Council, and the board of the National Endowment for Democracy. She also chairs the Board of Advisors for Ceannate Corp and is a director of the American Funds/Capital Research and Management Company and ClubCorp.

The UNCG German Program received funding from the German Embassy in Washington, DC, to participate in Campus Weeks 2015: 25 Years German Unity. The campaign commemorates the 25th anniversary of Germany’s reunification. On Oct. 3, 1990, East Germany and West Germany reunited to form a single nation. This historic decision marked the end of the unification process, which began with the fall of the Berlin Wall on Nov. 9, 1989. Through a variety of events, including lectures, campus competitions, and a video shoot, UNCG’s German Program looks back not just at the joyful moments of Germany’s reunification, but also at 25 years of growing together.

“Literature and Forced Migration at the End of WWII: From National to Transnational Representations.”
Lecture by Dr. Friederike Eigler, Professor of German, Georgetown University
Monday, November 9, 2-3:30 p.m., EUC Maple

Michele Laudenbacher was just 29 years old when she was first diagnosed with cancer.

“I spent five long years dealing with everything that comes along with a first-time cancer diagnosis,” she said. “In your late 20s, you still believe you have the rest of your life ahead of you. Those thoughts become distant when you receive a cancer diagnosis.”

Now a three-time cancer survivor and budget/finance manager for the Office of the Provost, Laudenbacher uses the SECC as a way to support the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund (OCRF) – an organization that has had a tremendous impact on her life and the lives of so many other women.

“Research involving all cancers is critically important. Through OCRF, new drugs and treatments have been developed, and doctors now have a better understanding of how this cancer spreads.”

Laudenbacher is one of many UNCG employees using the SECC as a way to share their story. While supporting OCRF allows her to give back to a cause that has directly impacted her life, Laudenbacher and her husband also support several other organizations that do great work in the community, including The Pastor’s Pantry and the Alzheimer’s Research and Prevention Foundation.

Laudenbacher encourages the UNCG community to take some time and research the long list of charities you can support through the SECC.

“The website search feature is the perfect tool in which to explore and learn about charities that may not be as well known. Most everyone has heard of Susan G. Komen and Wounded Warrior Project, but how many people know about the Be Loud! Sophie Foundation or the Fort Bragg-based Patriot Foundation?”

To share your story with SECC and to help the university reach its goal of raising $200,000, visit secc.uncg.edu to learn more and access the ePledge system. All contributions are confidential and tax-deductible.

The UNCG University Libraries will offer three $1,000 awards for courses to be taught in spring 2016 to support restructuring an undergraduate course in order to more intentionally integrate information literacy and research. This award is open to anyone who teaches a course at the undergraduate or graduate level and has the authority to make substantive changes to that course.

The purpose of the Information Literacy Course Development Awards is to support instructors in revitalizing courses to foster information literacy skills. These re-envisioned courses will incorporate information literacy throughout the semester, teaching students to locate, evaluate, synthesize, and cite sources in the manner most appropriate for the subject area.

A faculty review committee will study the portfolios with regard to the following criteria: 1) the importance of the research contributions to the field, 2) the originality of thought, 3) the execution of the research, and 4) the pattern of the nominee’s research productivity.

Up to two Research Excellence Awards may be given each year. The Junior Research Excellence Award is for a scholar at the rank of assistant or associate professor and a cash honorarium of $4,500 accompanies the award. The award will be based primarily on work done at UNCG during the past five years. The Senior Research Excellence Award is for a scholar at the rank of professor and a cash honorarium of $7,500 accompanies the award. The award will be made on the basis of the nominee’s research career, with particular emphasis placed on work done in the last five years.

Due to the exceptional pool of nominees typically submitted and in recognition of the work involved in preparing the nomination packet, the Research Excellence Committee will consider applications for an additional year after the original submission. The nominator will have the opportunity to update the application packet, if desired. This would particularly apply if, for example, a nominee for the Junior award becomes eligible for the Senior Award or if the nominator wishes to highlight significant accomplishments in the past year since the original packet was submitted.

To nominate a faculty member for the 2015-16 Research Excellence Award, click on this link for a copy of the nomination packet which includes the nomination guidelines, selection criteria and the nomination cover sheet. All materials are to be submitted electronically. The Nomination Packet, including the signed nomination form, should be scanned as a pdf file and emailed to rsh_ptnr@uncg.edu by Dec. 4, 2015.

Faculty, staff and students are invited to stop by the tables set up in EUC on Nov. 9-10, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. to make or sign “Get Well” or “Thank You” cards for hospitalized servicemen and women serving overseas or in a local VA center. Staff Senate, the Veterans Resource Center and the UNCG Students Veterans Association will have ready-made cards available for signing, and for those who feel creative, there will be blank cards, stamps, stickers, and more to make original creations. Some of the cards will be sent to the VA hospital in Salisbury, NC, and some will be sent to Operation Quiet Comfort, a support group whose purpose is to honor and comfort America’s military men and women who become sick or injured while serving overseas.

The organizers need UNCG Staff to help at the tables. All that is required is for you to be present at the table.

If you’d like to donate an hour to two of your time to help collect the cards, contact Audrey Sage at 334-5145 or alsage@uncg.edu to sign up.

Dr. Christine Murray, associate professor in the Department of Counseling and Educational Development, has one goal in mind for Domestic Violence Awareness Month: end the stigma.

While Murray was just named Counselor of the Year by the Licensed Professional Counselors Association of North Carolina for her research, teaching and community efforts related to domestic violence, she knows her work is far from over.

As co-founder of See the Triumph, a social media campaign that challenges the stigma associated with domestic violence and provides resources to survivors and service organizations, Murray is focused on ending stigma and celebrating triumph.

“We’ve heard from hundreds of survivors of domestic violence in our research, and the vast majority are not repeat victims as popular stereotypes suggest,” Murray said. “These are individuals who have overcome incredibly complex, difficult situations to build positive, healthy lives.”

In addition to her work with See the Triumph and several other community initiatives, Murray remains committed to raising awareness among students on campus. According to Murray, dating violence occurs on colleges campuses more often than many students think.

“It’s really important that college students move slowly in dating relationships. Red flags of abuse can often be very confusing and misinterpreted as innocent signs of interest.”

Murray encourages students to have a support system of friends and family and to be aware of the many resources that are available. UNCG provides numerous on-campus resources for students who are victims of domestic abuse, including The Counseling Center, the Dean of Students Office, the Nicholas A. Vacc Counseling and Consulting Clinic and UNCG Police. There are also resources throughout the Greensboro community, such as the Guilford County Family Justice Center, that support student victims.

What can UNCG students do to start increasing awareness and decreasing the stigma? Start talking.

“Don’t be afraid to speak up if you have a friend, roommate or classmate that may be in a potentially unsafe relationship,” Murray said. “Educate yourself now about domestic violence, and don’t hesitate to reach out for help in the future.”

See full story – and some warning signs of abusive relationships – at UNCG Now.

Dr. Susanne Rinner was elected to serve on the Executive Council of the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) first as vice president (2016-17) and then as president (2018-19). Her four-year term on the Executive Council will begin on Jan. 1, 2016. With over 4,000 members, AATG is the only individual membership organization in the United States dedicated to the teaching of the language, literatures and cultures of the German-speaking countries. Founded in 1926, AATG believes that bringing the language, literatures, and cultures of the German speaking world to all Americans is a vital humanistic endeavor and serves an essential national interest. The organization promotes the highest quality of the teaching and research of the language, literatures, and cultures of the German-speaking world and is a key partner to a number of organizations supporting the teaching and learning of German in the US.

Rinner is associate professor of German Studies; associate department head of Languages, Literatures and Cultures; director of Undergraduate Studies in German; and coordinator of the living-learning community The Global Village.

Dr. Julia Smith (Psychology) received funding from Child Trends for the project “Center for Research on Hispanic Children and Families. The project is a subcontract to the Hispanic Families Research Center, managed by Child Trends, Inc. The primary goal of this aspect of the five-year center is to advance understanding of child care issues for low-income Hispanic families, including related issues such as a) improving the quality of care and the coordination across early care and education systems to support early learning for Hispanic children and b) increasing access and promote informed child care choices among Hispanic parents.

Stacy W. Rice was awarded the International Writing Center Association President’s Future Leaders Scholarship award for demonstrating strong leadership at UNCG’s Digital ACT Studio and Writing Center. Rice received this award for her dedication to multiliteracy center work by serving as the assistant director of the Digital ACT Studio, graduate assistant director at the Writing Center, graduate student reviewer of The Peer Review—a new peer-reviewed journal about writing and multiliteracy centers.

By receiving this award, Rice was able to attend and present at the IWCA Conference in Pittsburgh. Her presentation, “Repeatedly Wrestling with Revolution: Writing and Technology Anxieties of Past and Present,” focused on how writing centers are seeing an increasing number of multimodal/multimedia compositions; yet, there is relatively little scholarship on how to prepare peer consultants for such texts, leading to the potential for technology-related anxiety.

She is a doctoral candidate in English: Rhetoric and Composition.

As her career develops, she intends to serve as director or assistant director of a writing or multiliteracy center. She studies the intersections of mass media, political rhetoric, and war.

Jim Wren is performance program coordinator in UNCG Theatre. He is also the resident fight coordinator at Triad Stage. Hear what he has to say about the current Triad Stage production and his work on it.

The SECC has reached a milestone: In the 30-year history of the State Employees Combined Campaign (SECC), state employees have donated more than $100 million in support of charities serving North Carolinians. The first SECC raised $878,037. The 2014 campaign raised $3.8 million.

The SECC is still in the midst of its 30th annual campaign to raise support for nearly a thousand nonprofit organizations that help North Carolinians.

Undergraduate Admissions is holding a fall open house for high school juniors and seniors this Saturday, October 24. This event, Spartan Showcase, attracts prospective students from all over North Carolina and the East Coast.

Chris Keller, director of Undergraduate Admissions, has this message for faculty and staff:

Students and families are always excited to talk with faculty and staff who attend Spartan Showcase. On behalf of Undergraduate Admissions, I would like to thank all of you who have volunteered for this year’s event or have helped us in the past. Getting campus ready for visitors and making students feel welcome is truly a team effort at UNCG.

Some of you may be attending Spartan Showcase with your own prospective student. I hope you find the experience to be fun and informative. Students will receive an email survey after the event, but if any of you have additional feedback to pass along, I would love to hear from you.

The public is invited to attend a Greensboro Municipal Candidate Forum Thursday, October 29, 6-8 p.m., Alumni House.

The UNCG Alumni Association’s Spartan Legislative Network is hosting the Candidate Forum for Greensboro mayor and city council candidates. Lee Kinard ’74, ’77 MA, ’88 EdD will serve as moderator. Community members will have the opportunity to ask questions during the forum. Questions may also be submitted via UNCG Alumni Association’s Facebook page.

Complimentary parking is available in the Oakland parking deck.

The Spartan Legislative Network is a network of citizens who promote the value of UNCG and public higher education to North Carolina elected officials. The network’s mission is to uphold, maintain and strengthen UNCG as one of the flagship institutions of the University of North Carolina system. To become a member of the network please visit spartanadvocacy.info.

The firepit is impressive – 15 feet in diameter and made of A36 steel. It weighs two tons. “UNCG” is laser cut into the steel along the edges. It was assembled from four quarter-sections on Kaplan Commons last Friday morning.

Each year, UNCG’s Alumni Association recognizes some of the university’s most extraordinary graduates through a series of Alumni of Distinction Awards.

These graduates are honored for their dedication to service, community and professional excellence.

The Alumni of Distinction award winners were honored at an awards dinner last Thursday during Homecoming.

The Alumni Lifetime Achievement Award went to Dr. Margaret Bourdeaux Arbuckle ’74 MEd, ’82 PhD, known for her passion for education and tireless work to improve opportunities for all children, especially the disadvantaged.

Dr. Karrie G. Dixon ’00 MA and Dr. Barbara Mitchell Parramore ’54 received the Alumni Distinguished Service Award. Dixon is the University of North Carolina system’s vice president for academic and student success, and Parramore is a lifelong educator, now serving as professor emerita in the North Carolina State University College of Education.

Dr. Margaret JoAnne Safrit ’57 was awarded the Alumni Excellence Award. She is a pioneer in the field of kinesiology. Safrit was a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for 20 years before she became American University’s chair for its Department of Health and Fitness for eight years.

Christy Johnson ’03, ’05 MA, a songwriter, performer and actress, received the Young Alumni Award. She is the manager and front vocalist for the rock alternative band DREAMKILLER, which has produced two albums and whose songs have been featured in seven feature films.

The Faculty Senate Scholarly Communications Forum will be held on October 28 from 3:30 – 5 p.m. in the EUC Alexander Room.

There are many reasons why faculty and researchers publish their work:

to share their discoveries

to make an impact in their field

to meet institutional and professional expectations

to foster learning and discovery

How these objectives are achieved is affected by where you publish and the agreements you enter into with publishers about the ownership and use of your intellectual output.

Come join guest speaker Christine Fruin, J.D., MSLIS from the University of Florida to gain a better understanding of the legal relationships between author, publisher and reader and how to better preserve the rights not only of information producers but also information consumers through licensing and open access. This talk will also explore how quality and impact is measured in the modern scholarly publishing system and the new ways for discovering and distributing scholarship.

The UNCG University Libraries will offer three $1,000 awards for courses to be taught in spring 2016 to support restructuring an undergraduate course in order to more intentionally integrate information literacy and research. This award is open to anyone who teaches a course at the undergraduate or graduate level and has the authority to make substantive changes to that course.

The purpose of the Information Literacy Course Development Awards is to support instructors in revitalizing courses to foster information literacy skills. These re-envisioned courses will incorporate information literacy throughout the semester, teaching students to locate, evaluate, synthesize, and cite sources in the manner most appropriate for the subject area.

Attend next week’s strategic planning forum to share your input on themes that have emerged from the campus stakeholder discussions over the last year.

The forum will be held Oct. 27, 5:30-7:30 p.m., EUC Auditorium

It will begin with a 30-minute presentation from Chancellor Gilliam designed to share the themes and the way in which the ideas have been shaped by him with input from the strategic planning committee. (See Campus Weekly report after Oct. 5 forum.)

Additionally, students are invited to take part in a forum with Chancellor Gilliam to share their input on UNCG’s new strategic plan Monday, Nov. 2, from 4-6 p.m., EUC Claxton Room.

Halloween Hoopla at Career Services
Need a break between classes? Stop by the Career Services Center and play some games, register to win fabulous prizes, get some candy, or have a one-on-one reading with our career psychic(entertainment purposes only).
October 28, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Career Services Center, EUC.

Haunted house fundraiser: ‘Silver Scream Slaughterhouse’
This Saturday, Oct, 24, from 7 p.m.-midnight, Mary Foust Residential College will become a haunted movie palace. The fundraising haunted house is called “The Silver Scream Slaughterhouse.” Guests will sit and view silent horror films of the 1920s in the courtyard, projected on a screen in front of the door, enjoying popcorn and games. Their tour groups will go behind the silver screen into a tour of terror, as the cinema’s most frightening horror icons come to life within the haunted theater. All proceeds benefit the Arc of Greensboro and the Spartan Pantry. $5 for Admission, $3 with canned food item.

Weatherspoon Art Museum’s Masquerade event
Enjoy amazing art, great music, and delicious drinks at this Pop-Art / Pop-Culture themed soiree. The event is Oct. 30, 7 p.m. Tickets are on sale now, and can be purchased in person at the museum, or by calling (336) 334-5770 and asking to purchase. We hear the museum lobby will be transformed with live music, incredible visuals, tricks and treats.

Alyssa Bedrosian has joined University Relations as one of two new staff writers. A Greensboro native, she graduated summa cum laude from Virginia Tech. Prior to joining UNCG, Bedrosian served as a communications manager at RLF Communications.

Jeanie Groh has join UNCG’s University Relations team as a staff writer. Before coming to the university, she was the education reporter at the Salisbury Post, where she covered four colleges/universities and two school systems. A Raleigh native, she graduated from Gardner-Webb University.

Martin Kane joined University Relations as photographer last April. He came to UNCG from North Carolina State Parks, where he was multimedia producer and exhibit designer. Before that, he was exhibit designer and curator of exhibits at the Greensboro Historical Museum. He was photographer and adjunct faculty at The Evergreen State College, and was photographer and museum exhibit designer at Hagley Museum & Library.

Morgan Josey Glover is UNCG’s social media coordinator. A Campbell University graduate, she has covered public education and other topics for two North Carolina newspapers. She last served as a community engagement and online news editor for the (Greensboro) News & Record, overseeing the company’s social media strategy.

Natasha Williams joined UR this summer as communications coordinator. Originally from Fayetteville, she earned her bachelor’s from UNC Charlotte, and she received her master’s in Communication Studies here at UNCG in May.

This four-part series gives you a quick introduction to Spanish that focuses on conversations and phrases that are useful in day-to-day office interactions, travel and recreation. It is strongly recommended that you take all four one-hour sessions offered in a compact four-week period. Don’t miss this special opportunity to receive an introduction to Spanish conversation and learn useful phrases and pronunciation.

In Part I, participants will learn about Spanish pronunciation, greetings and goodbyes, etiquette and social niceties, introduction and self-identification. Participants will be able to make sentences using regular verbs in the Simple Present tense.

UNCG’s Weatherspoon Art Museum announces the appointment of Emily Stamey as its new curator of exhibitions.

On behalf of the search committee and Weatherspoon staff, director Nancy Doll says, “Emily is just the person we were looking for, with her combination of skills and experience in organizing exhibitions and working with artists, commissioning new work, writing, lecturing, and great interest in collaborating across campus and the community.”

She began on October 19.

Stamey comes to the Weatherspoon from the Scottsdale (AZ) Museum of Contemporary Art, where she has been Curator of Contemporary Art. In that capacity, she organized a number of thoughtful and engaging exhibitions such as Kelly Richardson: Tales on the Horizon, an exhibition featuring video installations that blend scientific research and the traditions of romantic landscape painting to offer imaginative glimpses of the future; and Leslie Shows: Surfacing, which premiered new, multimedia paintings that explore the histories of how humans have transformed matter. Her current research examines the ways in which artists have used canonical fairy tales to explore current events and contemporary cultural debates.

Prior to her work in Scottsdale, Stamey was Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Ulrich Museum of Art at Wichita (KS) State University. Among well received exhibitions there, she organized Stocked: Contemporary Art from the Grocery Aisles; Tony Feher: Extraordinary Ordinary; Alfred Jaar: We Wish to Inform You That We Didn’t Know; and Odili Donald Odita: Television, to name a few.

She received her Ph.D. from The University of Kansas, Lawrence. Her dissertation was titled Pop, Place, and Personal Identity in the Art of Roger Shimomura, and she published the catalogue raisonné on the artist’s prints from 1968-2005. While working on both her master’s and doctoral degrees at KU, Lawrence, she held progressively responsible positions at the Spencer Museum of Art there.

Stamey has written a number of catalogues and exhibition essays, has taught university level classes and lectured at various conferences, and has served on a number of selection panels. She is a member of the College Art Association, Association of Art Museum Curators, and Art Table.

Internationally acclaimed violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg will perform at Aycock Auditorium on Friday, Oct. 23, at 8 p.m. as part of the 2015-16 University Performing Arts Series.

Salerno-Sonnenberg will perform alongside the UNCG Symphony Orchestra and the Gate City Camerata, a professional-level faculty/student string ensemble. She will play two classic pieces: “Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor” by Max Bruch and “The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires” by Astor Piazzolla.

“Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg is one of the best violinists in the world right now,” said Marjorie Bagley, professor of violin at UNCG’s School of Music, Theatre and Dance. “We’re thrilled that she is coming to UNCG. She’s a different level of musician than most people get to hear.”

Nine UNCG staff members were honored a few weeks ago weeks for their devotion to duty, innovation, service, human relations and other stellar achievements. Chancellor Gilliam presented several of the awards himself – at the staff members’ offices and work spaces – as did some of the Staff Senators from the Recognition and Morale committee.

The UNCG Office of Intercultural Engagement is partnering with the Center for New North Carolinians, the Latino Community Coalition of Guilford and the American Friends Service Committee to host “Memory: Disputed Territory,” a photo exhibit by Roderico Y. Díaz commemorating the work of survivors of the Guatemalan Genocide as they struggle for justice and reparations. The exhibit will take place Oct. 26 – Nov. 6 in the Multicultural Resource Center and is free and open to the public.

In addition, the UNCG and greater Greensboro communities are invited to attend a reception and panel discussion with the artist at 6 p.m. on Oct. 28 in the Alumni House. The dialogue will explore the legal, historical and cultural elements of genocide through both international and U.S. examples.

Díaz is a Guatemalan documentarian and photojournalist whose work portrays different facets of Guatemalan society, highlighting injustice and the difficult work of human rights activists in their pursuit of justice. His work focuses specifically on the survivors of the Ixil Genocide in Guatemala and the struggle of indigenous and campesino communities as they defend their identities, natural resources and rights to land and territory.

Professors Deborah Bell (UNCG), Heather L. Holian (UNCG) and Kathryn Shields (Guilford College) will discuss ways in which masquerade permeates modern life. The panel will be Oct. 29 from 6:30-7:30 p.m. at the Weatherspoon. All three have essays in “Masquerade: Essays on Tradition and Innovation Worldwide” (2015), edited by Bell. Theatre Design & Technology recently noted that this collection of essays “opens the field of masquerade to new interpretations and provides an approach for using the mask as a lens for analyzing contemporary popular culture.”

Dr. Malcolm Schug had a newly discovered species of fruit fly, Drosophila, named after him.

Dr. McEvey, from the Australian Museum of Natural History is the lead author and the foremost expert in the world on Drosophila taxonomy, the branch of science that encompasses the description, identification, nomenclature, and classification of organisms. He is a long-term colleague of Schug. “He accompanies me and my students on expeditions to the South Pacific,” Schug tells CW, “ where I collect Drosophila to study evolutionary genetics in my laboratory in the Ebehart Building at UNCG.”